InSight Crime has obtained a video in which some of Honduras’ top drug traffickers met with a member of the first family and offered to give over half a million dollars to help Honduras’ ruling party and an unsuccessful run for office by now-President Xiomara Castro.
The meeting, which happened during Castro’s failed 2013 bid for the presidency, was attended by Carlos Zelaya, Castro’s brother-in-law. Taken from a spy camera embedded in a watch worn by one of the traffickers, the pictures and audio are clear enough to show the drug traffickers reminisce about previous contributions allegedly paid to former President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya, the husband of Castro, brother to Carlos, and founder of the ruling Libre Party.
The video confirms longstanding suspicions that the current ruling party of Honduras was not immune to the influence of drug money, just as campaigns ramp up for the 2025 election.
